The new play tells the story of the Little Rock Nine, the first black students to attend the formerly segregated Little Rock Central High School.

The New York premiere of Little Rock, a new play written and directed by Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj, opened on Thursday, June 14 for its run through September 8 at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture.

Little Rock tells the true story of the Little Rock Nine, the first black students to attend their city's formerly segregated Little Rock Central High School three years after the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court decision ruled separating students based on race was unconstitutional. What began as their quest for a better education soon became a national crisis, igniting the passions of a divided country and sparking a historic fight for justice in the Jim Crow south. On the cusp of the civil rights movement, a changing world watched as these nine children from Arkansas battled for their rights, armed with only a notebook and pencil.

Little Rock received a developmental production as part of the 2011 New Works Festival at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, California. It went on to receive a production in 2014 at Passage Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey, where it won the 2015 Barrymore Award for Outstanding Ensemble.